(Lanka-e-News -08.April.2013, 11.55PM) The present Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse the prime suspect in the Matale mass genocide , had ordered today that all police registers and records which are older than 5 years at the police stations in the Central province including Matale be destroyed. Lanka e news reported yesterday that he had also instructed the IGP that all reports linked to the court action regarding the Matale mass graves be forwarded to him.

The objective in all these measures taken is to completely wipe out every information that links him to the mass murder though the orders are absolutely and brazenly unlawful. According to the police dept. rules and the supreme court (SC) new law reports these actions are totally illegal. Based on police department regulations , the records which are older than 5 years in connection with day to day information , crime information , traffic offences , civil cases and other information books can only be destroyed if court proceedings is not going to take place . Besides , they can only be destroyed in front of the relevant SSP .during his half yearly inspection.

In any case , if information has to be secured from these books or records or registers subsequently regarding crimes or against an officer, those records cannot be destroyed under any circumstances , and no police officer has the power to destroy. This is clearly stipulated in the police regulations. In the NLR reports it is mentioned that the SC had given verdicts many times to that effect.

Accordingly , while there is a case already in the courts regarding the Matale mass graves murders , and Gotabaya has been incriminated as being involved in the murders when he was Colonel Gotabaya at that time and the commanding officer in Matale ,and when these criminal details against him have come to light , destroying the records books and registers is absolutely illegal.

Based on reports reaching Lanka e news , the police registers / records regarding the murders and missing persons in the period 1988 -89 , and the police books are still intact , because a commission was appointed previously to investigate them , and a large number of witnesses gave evidence. Some of them even filed cases in the SC. As a result those police books / registers are still intact .

Gotabaya Rajapakse is already tainted with war crime charges and has therefore become notorious even internationally as a ruthless criminal. Hence, if the records and registers linked to his latest crime exposure – Matale mass murder are destroyed adhering to Gotabaya’s order today , it will be the Matale SSP R D S Medawatte and Central province Senior DIG M R B Ambanwala, will have to fully answer for those illegal activities later .

The discovery of the skeletons of 154 dead persons does not relate to a simple crime by any stretch of imagination.. It must be noted that the whole world is watching this investigation not only for its hugeness in number but also for the brutality and callousness of the perpetrators.

May it be warned that if any officer commits any wrongful or unlawful acts on Gota’s orders or of his own accord during the investigations, some day he would have to face the punishment via courts Locally or internationally.